How did you know it was time to close your startup? 🛑
Stepan Solodnev
7 replies
At some point, many of us face a situation where our business stops growing. We realize that pushing forward might only drain our time and energy without real results. Deciding to close a startup—especially if it’s your first or second venture—is incredibly tough. We often identify ourselves with our businesses, and shutting them down can feel like admitting defeat (though it’s absolutely not the case).
I’d love to hear your stories about closing a business. How did you make that decision, and what was the experience like for you? Your insights could be invaluable to others navigating similar crossroads.
Replies
Jurijs Ivolga@jurijs
I tried launching several online businesses, but most of them failed due to my lack of ability to sell a product.
My approach has been: if there's no traction after 3 months, just pull the plug. To be fair, those 3 months weren't something I came up with myself—I don't remember exactly where I read about it, but it resonated with me, so I adopted it.
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Launching soon!
When you have been in sales for 6 months and have not achieved any results, although you have followed all the rules.
Now with the help of AI you can easily get sales instructions, average metrics and many other tips. If you have done everything correctly, but there are no results, then it is either a pivot or the end.
We spend tons of time planning our launch but rarely think about exit signs. From experience, having clear checkpoints helped me big time. My criteria: if revenue didn't hit our target after 12 months of solid work, or if savings started shrinking, it was time to pause and think. This kept me from falling into the 'just one more month' loop. Best advice I got was treating the potential to exit like a business decision, not a personal failure. Sometimes the best path forward is choosing a new direction.
Launching soon!
The lack of market demand.